Asian Games 2018: Sanjeev Rajput settles for silver in 50m 3 position shooting

Jakarta, Aug 21: 37-year-old Indian shooter Sanjeev Rajput clinched a silver medal in 50m Rifle 3 position shooting in the 2018 Asian Games currently underway in Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang here on Tuesday (August 21).

The Arjuna Awardee shooter missed the gold medal by a whisker as he fell just 0.4 points short of his Chinese counterpart who bagged the gold medal at the Jakabaring International Shooting Range in Palembang.

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Union Sports Minister Rajyawardhan Rathore congratulated the veteran shooter for winning a silver medal.

"With his seasoned, superior shooting skills, @SanjeevRajput1 has made India proud by bagging a 🥈 medal! The veteran, already an Arjuna Awardee, has achieved this remarkable feat in Men's 50m Rifle 3 Position at #AsianGames2018 #IndiaAtAsianGames," wrote Rathore on his Twitter handle.

The 37-year-old shot 452.7 to claim the silver medal, while China's Hui Zicheng notched up the gold medal with a score of 453.3. Japan's Matsumoto Takayuki bagged the bronze with 441.4.

Rajput was leading initially in the finals but eventually slipped to the third spot after scoring low shots but he showed a lot of character to come back into the game and finally settled for a silver. Rajput dominated in the keeling and prone positions. However, an erratic show in the standing round put paid to his hopes of a gold.

He recovered from 7.8 in the third series of the kneeling position to end in the top position with a score of 151.2. Rajput continued his impressive run in prone, leading from start to finish after consistently shooting 10s.

He had a total score of 307.1 after 30 shots. In the standing position, Rajput led after the first series with a score of 355.6 but his slide coincided with Zicheng raising the bar. Rajput had won the gold medal at the 50m rifle 3 positions in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

With this silver from Sanjeev, India's medal tally has reached 8 with 6 medals coming in from shooting.

Earlier in the day, India's teenage sensation Saurabh Chaudhary clinched a gold medal in the 10M air pistol event. The 16-year-old won the yellow metal with a Games record 240.7.

(With inputs from PTI)